Last night I attended the Havas Creative Director dinner. Jacque Segela, the S in RSCG, was our host. It was a lovely evening, meeting and eating with other creatives from around the world of Havas agencies. This morning I got up and had breakfast next to Roger Daltrey from “The Who.” He was in town to speak at one of the seminars. I’ve included a picture of the back of his head. It was the best I could do.
Today is my last day in Cannes. I got the day started by attending the Euro/ACT Responsible seminar that featured our own Global CEO, David Jones; with Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN; Bob Geldof, founder of Live Aid; and Herve de Clerck, founder of Adforum and ACT Responsible. It was an emotional morning as Kofi spoke of the need for our world leaders to make changes this December in Copenhagen. One of the real stars of the morning was Bob Geldof. His talk was one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. He spoke, without filters, about the urgent needs for REAL change in our world. Geldof gave fact after fact about the devastating effects climate change is having on our world right now. The effects it will have in the next 20-50 years. Not opinion. Fact. Jones, Clerck, Annan and Geldof asked the advertising/marketing community to put pressure on the world leaders heading to Copenhagen to discuss the climate change issues by creating any type of campaign that leads them to the TCK TCK TCK Web site that is up and running as of today. By the time Bob Geldof was done, some were wiping away tears, others sat shocked by his candor. The one thing we were all doing when he finished was standing and applauding. It was a brilliant speech and an amazing challenge.
We also received some great news for our Euro RSCG Chicago office. One of our ad campaigns that we created for Juvenile Protective Association was displayed in the ACT Responsible gallery. The gallery consisted of over 100 print campaigns that support a worthy public service cause. Cannes residents and delegates were asked to vote for their favorite ad. Thousands of votes were tallied. Ours won! I was asked, along with my creative partner Steffan Postaer, to accept this award on behalf of our agency. The Mayor of Cannes was on hand to present the award, as was David Jones. The ad campaign was created and art directed by Puja Shah. Our week definitely ended on a high note.
Click images for larger version
